The present invention relates generally to the attachment of buttons to garments and like materials using fasteners.
The conventional method of attaching buttons to garments or fabrics, either by machine or by hand, is with thread. The button is held in place and a needle equipped with thread is inserted through each of two, three or more holes in the button and into the material several times until sufficient strands of thread exist to securely hold the button to the material. The thread must then be tied or otherwise fastened so that it will not unravel. In some instances, where it is desired to elevate the button from the material, a pedestal effect is achieved by laterally wrapping the strands with additional thread. The disadvantages of securing buttons to fabric or garments by this method are several. First of all, it is a slow and tedious job and the button can soon become detached if only one of the threads is severed or if the ends of the thread are not secured properly.
In the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,399,432, 3,470,834, and 3,494,004, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, there is described a plastic fastener which may be used instead of thread to attach a button to an article of clothing. The fastener typically comprises a flexible filament having a head at one end and a transverse bar at the opposite end. A plurality of such fasteners are typically manufactured as part of a clip in which the fasteners are interconnected in a row to a stringer or runner bar connected to the transverse bars of the fasteners by corresponding necks or connector posts. To sever an individual fastener from the fastener clip and to attach the severed fastener to a desired article (e.g., through a button hole and into an article of clothing), a fastener dispensing device is typically used. Such a device typically comprises a casing, a needle projecting from the casing, the needle and the casing having longitudinal bores in alignment with each other, a plunger slidable back and forth within said bores, a handle telescoping over the rear of the casing for sliding said plunger within said bores, and means for feeding fasteners into the device successively with the transverse bars in alignment with said bores ahead of the plunger so that they may be projected through the needle by reciprocating the plunger. Typically, the rear end of the needle is shaped to define a knife edge so that insertion of the transverse bar into the longitudinal bore of the needle using the plunger causes the knife edge of the needle to sever the connector post connecting the fastener to the remainder of the fastener clip.
While the above-described fasteners have been found to be generally satisfactory for attaching buttons to certain articles of clothing, they have not found universal application for the following reasons: First, when placed in direct contact with a person's skin, the transverse bar of the fastener has a tendency to be irritating. This is in part because the above-described severing of the connector post often leaves a burr on the bottom of the transverse bar and is in part because of the somewhat sharp ends and large size of the transverse bar. Second, the fasteners are often too big to be used with many buttons and, therefore, require the use of specially designed buttons having large holes. Third, the fasteners tend to be conspicuous in appearance due to the fact that a separate fastener is used for every button hole, as opposed to being looped between two or more button holes in the same way that thread typically is.
In commonly-assigned PCT Application No. PCT/US93/12112, which was published Jun. 23, 1994, and which is incorporated herein by reference, there is disclosed a fastener dispensing tool and fastener clip for use therewith. The fastener clip includes a plurality of fasteners which may be used, for example, in attaching a button to a garment or a piece of fabric, each fastener comprising a filament having a foot at one end. The fastener clip also comprises at least one runner bar, each fastener being connected to the runner bar by a severable connector post. The fastener dispensing tool includes a pair of needles. Each needle has a knife edge formed on its side which is adapted to sever a connector post from its associated runner bar. The tool also includes an ejector mechanism which is slidably mounted back and forth within the body of the tool and is rearwardly biased by a spring. The ejector mechanism is manually operable from the rear of the body of the fastener dispensing tool and includes a pair of ejector rods which are slidable back and forth within the bores of the needles.
To attach a button to a garment or like material using a fastener dispensing tool of the type described above, a user typically follows the following sequence of steps: (1) the user manually feeds a fastener clip into the fastener dispensing tool until a desired fastener is in position to be dispensed by the fastener dispensing tool; (2) the user inserts the needle(s) of the fastener dispensing tool first through a loose button and then through the desired garment; and (3) the user dispenses an individual fastener from the fastener clip through the button and the garment using the fastener dispensing tool. The fastener clip may then be advanced within the fastener dispensing tool so that additional fasteners may be dispensed therefrom into the same or different buttons. As can readily be appreciated, the above-described sequence of steps, particularly the loading of the fastener clip into the fastener dispensing tool and the insertion of the needles of the fastener dispensing tool through both the button to be attached and the garment or like material, may be difficult for some users in certain situations.
Other patents of interest include U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,101, inventors Marsh et al., which issued Nov. 30, 1982; U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,562, inventors Davidson et al., which issued Feb. 23, 1982; U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,698, inventors Davidson et al., which issued Oct. 27, 1981; U.S. Pat. No. 4,281,782, inventors Marsh et al., which issued Aug. 4, 1981; U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,925, inventor La Torraca, which issued Aug. 26, 1975; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,935,434, inventor Dawson, which issued May 3, 1960.